Pest Management Professional, April 2014

Watch a home or commercial building being constructed so you can truly understand the microenvironments ants are infesting Dont underestimate the power of cleaning known and suspected entry points with a strong detergent to remove pheromone trails and prevent further home invasions And always seal in plastic containers food thats attractive to ants Strickland adds Other top tips offered by our experts include Interview the customer to determine where the ants are Identify the ant types and if they are multi queen or supercolony ant species Dont stop at one nest or species ID Take a second look to ensure youre not dealing with more than one nest and or species With commercial accounts remember staff often have a better idea of ant activity than the owners and managers Dont undersell the job Allocate enough time and materials to do the job right the first time and price it appropriately After youve put together a plan for ant colony elimination develop a program to prevent future infestations Let customers know youre aware this isnt a new problem for them Most people dont call for treatment until theyve tried several times unsuccessfully to take care of the problem PMP You can reach Nepper at wnepper@ northcoastmedia net or 216 706 3775 Michelle and Patrick Walsh appear unphased by the zombies coming their way Their son James looks proud probably because the zombies were his idea From Ants to Zombies P atrick and Michelle Walshs son James was the first to say Lets put zombies on the trucks Patrick Walsh co owner vice president and director of operations for VanWal Pest Elimination in Kernersville N C had utilized truck wrap advertising before but it was his son who sought to throw zombies in the mix We struggled for weeks about how to tie in zombies with bugs Patrick Walsh says My wife and I are huge fans of The Walking Dead AMCs popular zombie drama and then it hit me when I read about zombie ants Ophiocordyceps unilateralis which is actually an entomopathogenic fungus Search the Internet for an explanation of the role it plays in the ant world Then it hit me again during a staff meeting I said We need to eliminate every pest from A to Z A light bulb went off and I thought From Ants to Zombies Walsh said it took his wife a while to get on board with the zombie idea but his truck wrap artist was eager to take on the design challenge When the trucks graphics wrap was delivered we all went crazy for it he says excitedly Up close you can see ants crawling all over the zombies Our techs get stopped all of the time by people who want to take their picture with our From Ants to Zombies trucks I dont know if our zombie trucks increase the bottom line substantially but they sure grab attention which we all know is key to advertising In addition to zombie trucks VanWals vehicles are decked out with other imagery including A gangster with a tommy gun We kill bugs Fuhgedaboudit A dinosaur Make your pest problems extinct and A pirate ARRR ye bug infested James Walsh spawned most of the imagery ideas www mypmp net Pest Management Professional April 2014 AM11 Photo by Doug Van de Zande S P O N S O R E D B Y